


After The Institute

by RoguesCorner



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-03
Updated: 2019-10-03
Packaged: 2020-12-01 19:55:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20881748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoguesCorner/pseuds/RoguesCorner
Summary: Rae leaves to find the Institute, and it isn't until she comes back MacCready realizes she learnt more than she wanted.





	After The Institute

Rae lifted her arms, sliding her rifle over her shoulder, checking the ammo as Maccready watched. In the past hour, he had counted her rechecking stimpacks, radaway and ammo for her guns at least four times. 

He removed his cap, running a hand through his coarse hair, before putting it back on, adjusting how it was sitting on his head. 

“So, do I look wasteland ready?” 

MacCready finally looked up when she spoke, eyes leaving the comic sitting on his lap. She was wearing the same jacket she had been when they had met, a signature look of her’s by this point. With two pistols at her hip and the combat rifle on her back, she was definitely prepared. Some days it was hard to believe that she had only been in this world for half a year, and had been raised in the pre-war world. 

“You’ll be killing deathclaws with just a look.” He said, and she smiled at the remark. 

“How long are you going to be gone again?” MacCready asked as she leaned down to brush the dirt off her boots. 

“Hopefully no longer than a week. Deacon and I just have to take care of this molecular-whatever- with work. I doubt I’ll actually get into the Institute, but if I do then we’ll be coming home with Shaun.” Rae said, standing back up and placing her hands on her hips. “Why are you gonna miss me Mac?” 

MacCready chuckled, kicking his legs off the bed and leaving the comics he had been reading behind. “Maybe a little.” He said, kissing her cheek. Rae laughed, pushing her hair behind her ears. “Just, don’t get into too much trouble alright? I know you have a knack for finding it.” 

Rae opened her mouth to reply, but the knock on the hallway wall made her close it again. Deacon stood in the door frame, his arms crossed and a different set of clothes on from when she had spoken to him an hour ago.

“You ready to go?” He asked, fixing the cowboy hat on his head. 

She nodded. “Yeah, meet you outside, just give me a minute.” 

Deacon pushed off the wall, glancing once at MacCready before turning to leave “Alright, but if I hear moaning then I’m leaving without you and telling Dez you died on the way.” He said as he left, and a stupid grin on his face. 

Rae rolled her eyes as MacCready glared at the back of the man’s head. Once Deacon was out of the hall, she took one of his hands in hers. 

“I’ll be fine.”

“You’re trying to get into the Institute, honestly it's a little bit crazy”

“Isn’t ‘crazy’ the common denominator in my life?” She teased but didn’t look impressed. 

“Don’t worry, I’ll be back before you know it, promise?” Rae said, smiling before kissing him quickly. He followed her to the door, watching her leave down Sanctuary's streets giving Deacon a playful punch on the shoulder. 

MacCready let out a deep breath, pursing his lips before heading back inside, looking for his rifle. He needed something to keep his hands, and his mind, busy. 

  
________

Two weeks had passed, with nothing, and MacCready tried his best not to worry. When the night of week three started, he could hardly sleep, his stomach twisting in knots and making him feel sick. It took a while, but finally, he was able to drift away, only to be awoken an hour later by the crashing in a room over. 

Instinctively, he reached for his rifle and cursed when he remembered he had left it on the dining room table. MacCready knew Rae kept an extra pistol under the nightstand, and he scrambled for it. 

The small gun felt odd in his hands, though he raised it high anyways, moving into the other room. His fingers were over the trigger, ready to shot without hesitation but when he saw the figure standing in the room in front of the crib, its sides cracked and splintered, MacCready almost dropped the gun instead. 

Rae had a baseball bat raised, her jacket and weapons discarded on the floor, as she swung and the blue crib. 

“Woah - hey! Hey, hey!” MacCready yelled, flipping the pistol’s safety on and tossing it behind him. She brought down the bat, the wood of the crib shattering apart. Rae raised it again, and MacCready rushed forward, grabbing it in two hands and pulling back. 

“Rae stop it!” He shouted, and she struggled against him, trying to hit the crib. 

After several seconds of struggling her resolve weakened and MacCready pulled the bat from her, tossing it to the side. He wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her against him, away from the crib and the two fell to the floor. 

Rae started to heave, tears rolling down her face. MacCready didn’t speak. Instead, he rested his head on her on one shoulder and a put hand on her other, steadying her and she rocked back and forth. She took a deep, shaky breath, searching for air as her wails slowly turned into hiccups. 

“Hey...It’s alright...Just breath.” He whispered. Rae listened for once in her life, taking several deep breaths, her eyes never leaving the shattered crib spread across the cracked flooring. 

“Want to tell me what happened?” MacCready asked, but she remained silent. 

“Rae” He paused, waiting for her to reply, move or make a sound. He tried again. “Hun?” 

Nothing.

With a sigh, he said her name again, quietly. “Raylene?” 

At her full name, Rae’s eyes snapped up from the crib and to his face. He could see now that her cheeks were still wet, her eyes were bloodshot and bright red. How long had she been crying?

“I found him.” Was all she said, voice hoarse. MacCready's mouth opened in shock. Did she find Shaun? Obviously, it hadn't gone as planned, since he saw no sign of the boy and the fact his old crib was now in a thousand pieces. 

“He’s so old.” She started, collecting herself before continuing. “Sixty, he’s sixty- I missed my son’s whole fucking life to the Institute, and now he’s their fucking leader,” Rae said, practically spitting venom. 

“What?” MacCready said, pulling away from her in surprise. 

“They took him from me to watch him grown and now he’s in charge of the fucking place. If I had known about what he would become, what he could do-” She stopped, taking a deep breath and letting her eyes fall back onto the broken crib. “I should have left him in that crib the day the bombs fell.”

“No. You don’t mean that.” MacCready cut her off, moving so he could sit in front of her. “He was still your son then, he was still a child, and you had no idea what could have happened. You’re not responsible for what he’s done.” 

She nodded, MacCready brushing away a few tears that were still resting in the corners of her eyes. 

“I just, I missed his whole life,” Rae said, shoulders and back slouching slightly. 

“I know,” MacCready said, pulling her close again and wrapping her in a tight hug. “And I’m so sorry.” 

He couldn’t imagine what she was going through, what she was feeling. If Duncan had died, if this had happened to him even, MacCready wasn’t even sure how he would be able to keep moving forward. When they had been on the road, he had held onto the hope that they would find a cure, and she held onto the hope that Shaun would be in the Institute, ready to come home. To have that one chance of getting her son back get torn away in just seconds, after months of searching, he could see how much it destroyed her. She had made sure that Duncan had the chance to live, she had restored what little hope MacCready had left. Now he felt useless, he couldn’t return the favour, he couldn’t help. There was no more hoping to find Shaun alive and ready to come home, he was hardly her kid, he might as well be dead. 

“We're going to find a way through this, I promise,” MacCready said quietly, stroking the back of her head, trying to soothe her. 

“I know.” Rae buried her head in the crook of his neck, wrapping her arms around him tighter. “I love you, Robert.” 

“I love you too.” He said, kissing the top of her head. 

**Author's Note:**

> Ya'll I'm never not gonna be shit at summaries and titles lmao 
> 
> hope you enjoyed! Working through a backlog of stuff I've never posted and liked this enough to let it see the light of day.


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